Second-seeded Brady beats Andreescu for first time, advances to DTC semifinals

Fred Kelly fred.kelly@mdn.net

Published
5:41 pm EST, Friday, February 2, 2018

Jennifer Brady might've had a much higher world ranking than her opponent going into Friday's quarterfinals of the Dow Tennis Classic, but she expected nothing less than a dogfight. And that's exactly what she got from Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu.

For the first time in four tries, the 95th-ranked and second-seeded Brady got by the 182nd-ranked Andreescu, 6-4, 7-5, to advance to Saturday's semifinal round, where she'll face unseeded American Jamie Loeb.

"It's a tough matchup. I've played her three times already ... and lost the other three times," Brady, 22, said of the 17-year-old Andreescu. "She knows a little bit about my game, and I know a little bit about hers. I knew it was going to be a tough matchup. ... It definitely was not an easy win."

In a back-and-forth slugfest, Andreescu played a little more aggressively and finished with about twice as many winners and unforced errors as Brady. Brady, meanwhile, was the more poised, consistent player and seemed content to pick her spots to attack while waiting for her opponent to make mistakes.

"I just felt like I was very solid and played the big points the way I needed to," Brady said.

Both players were somewhat erratic in a wacky first set which saw only three service holds. Andreescu broke Brady's serve three times, but Brady broke back four times — including the final time at love — to claim a 6-4 victory.

By contrast, both players held serve early in the second set, but Brady eventually was able to break and go up 4-2. Then, in what was by far the longest game of the match, Andreescu earned five break points and finally stole a six-deuce game on an unforced error by Brady to get back on serve at 4-3.

The players held serve for the next four games, and then Brady broke Andreescu at 30 to take the set 7-5.

"There were a couple of games where maybe she had a few mental lapses and a couple of her shots started to break down, and I definitely was picking on those (weaknesses)," Brady noted. " ... It definitely was a hard-earned win."

Looking ahead to Saturday's semifinal against Loeb, who has been playing terrific tennis this week, Brady said she's feeling "pretty good" herself.

"I've just got to stick with it, (stick with) the same routines, and just try to compete for every single point and just have some fun out there," she said.